ISS + SSI

Is ISS the opposite of SSI? :-) Hah! I almost think that's right. At least NASA's vision of ISS. Thevision of High Frontier is to go out into space and build ever-larger habitats for the purpose of making lots of money, and opening the space frontier to the average person. The vision of ISS is to go out into space to build an ever-shrinking habitat for the purpose of spending lots of money in the right congressional districts, but by all means keeping out the "unprofessional tourists". It was really sad to watch as NASA Langley threw out all their space solar
power files. (Don't worry, they are not lost - I saw many of them
translated into Japanese while the International Space University space
solar power study in Kitakyushu in 1992.) This description sure made me cringe. A while back it was fashionable to consider that it was time for the US to move over, the Japanese would be the movers and shakers of the world in the future. Now that expectation seems to have gone out of style. But we may yet regret our current complacency.